Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One and Grief: The Great Yearning, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.” Bertram is also the author of the suspense novels Unfinished, Madame ZeeZee’s Nightmare, Light Bringer, Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One, and A Spark of Heavenly Fire.

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The Beauty of Our Watery World

May 23, 2016 — Pat Bertram

I was thrilled by my first sight of a great lake in Door County, Wisconsin, but Lake Michigan wasn’t the only body of water we visited. My host took me to various lakes that would normally have seemed like big lakes to me, but in comparison to the immensity of Lake Michigan, seemed like mere puddles.

I don’t have a great sense of balance at the best of times, but as we walked out on the boat ramp at Lake Europe, I had to stop and close my eyes to find my balance. The waves gave the illusion of the ramp floating quite speedily across the water. (Oddly, I could still feel the movement when my eyes were closed, just not as strongly.) Once I found my sea legs, I enjoyed the sensation of sailing, but I was still feeling unbalanced enough that I couldn’t force myself to step to the edge of the ramp. The mystery of the illusion did not keep me from enjoying the beauty of the mostly unspoiled lake, in fact, the illusion helped make the experience memorable.

Lakes aren’t the only great bodies of water near Door County. There are also two bays: Sturgeon Bay and Green Bay. We climbed the 75-foot tower at Potowatami State Park to get a fantastic view of Green Bay. Apparently, if there are no mountains to climb to see the world below, humans build them. And no wonder — seeing a panoramic view of the world helps us grasp the vastness of our nature and may give us a glimpse of our place in the scheme of things.

And my place, for the moment, is enjoying the beauty of our watery world.

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(Pat Bertram is the author of the suspense novels Light Bringer, More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I. Bertram is also the author of Grief: The Great Yearning, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.”)

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The photo of lighted trees is the night view beside my hotel balcony. The photo of the patio with a bridge in the background is the daytime view from my balcony.

Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One debunks many established beliefs about what grief is, explains how it affects those left behind, and shows how to adjust to a world that no longer contains the loved one. “It is exactly what folk need to read who are grieving.”(Leesa Heely Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator ).

Other books by Pat Bertram

Available online wherever books and ebooks are sold.

Grief: The Great Yearning is not a how-to but a how-done, a compilation of letters, blog posts, and journal entries Pat Bertram wrote while struggling to survive her first year of grief. This is an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.

While sorting through her deceased husband’s effects, Amanda is shocked to discover a gun and the photo of an unknown girl who resembles their daughter. After dedicating her life to David and his vocation as a pastor, the evidence that her devout husband kept secrets devastates Amanda. But Amanda has secrets of her own. . .

When Pat’s adult dance classmates discover she is a published author, the women suggest she write a mystery featuring the studio and its aging students. One sweet older lady laughingly volunteers to be the victim, and the others offer suggestions to jazz up the story. Pat starts writing, and then . . . the murders begin.

Thirty-seven years after being abandoned on the doorstep of a remote cabin in Colorado, Becka Johnson returns to try to discover her identity, but she only finds more questions. Who has been looking for her all those years? And why are those same people interested in fellow newcomer Philip Hansen?

When twenty-five-year-old Mary Stuart learns she inherited a farm from her recently murdered grandparents -- grandparents her father claimed had died before she was born -- she becomes obsessed with finding out who they were and why someone wanted them dead.

In quarantined Colorado, where hundreds of thousands of people are dying from an unstoppable, bio-engineered disease, investigative reporter Greg Pullman risks everything to discover the truth: Who unleashed the deadly organism? And why?

Bob Stark returns to Denver after 18 years in SE Asia to discover that the mother he buried before he left is dead again. At her new funeral, he sees . . . himself. Is his other self a hoaxer, or is something more sinister going on?